


Time of the Month

by musicalfreak86



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-21
Updated: 2014-11-21
Packaged: 2018-02-26 11:28:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2650394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicalfreak86/pseuds/musicalfreak86
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the Hayffie Challenge on Tumblr. Just a little fic in which Haymitch sympathizes with the monthly pain of being a woman.<br/>(Old fic)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time of the Month

**Author's Note:**

> This is an older fic (again), but I thought this would be a good time to bring all these old Hayffie fics over here.
> 
> I do not own Hunger Games.

She is bitchier than usual. Haymitch notices this as soon as they meet at the breakfast table. Usually she would be irritating the hell out of all of them with her chipper mood and beating of the schedule into their heads. But this morning, she scowls, only talking enough to let them know where they needed to be next. Normally, he would tease her, try to get a rise out of her. But something makes him hold back this morning. Maybe it's the expression on her face that clearly reads that she really, really is not in the mood to be messed with. Or maybe it's the way her jaw is set in a manner that suggests she is in pain, though he knows that is absurd. There's nothing here that could be causing her pain.

He doesn't see her for most of the day. He wonders if she may be avoiding him, which is a strange thought. He feels a little off without her following him around driving him crazy about his manners and how he really should act like a proper mentor while he gets progressively more drunk. But he doesn't seek her out. As much as he enjoys watching her get frustrated with him, some instinct tells him that to purposefully get on her nerves now would be gambling with his life.

So he is a little surprised later when he comes into the main viewing room after everyone is asleep to catch up on the day's Games and finds her curled up on the sofa. He is going to just turn around and leave so as not to bother her when he notices something strange. She seems to be curled around something. Curiosity getting the better of him, he sits down on the sofa to get a closer look. After a moment's observation, he realizes that it's a heating pad. With this discovery, everything begins to make sense. The mad mood, the heating pad…it must be that time of the month. He doesn't know if he should stay where he is or run for his life, but then it's too late, because she is stirring.

She groans and curls up further and he knows she will be mad because she hates it when he sees her without all of her makeup and frills. He doesn't understand why, because somewhere deep down in a place even he doesn't acknowledge, he thinks she is beautiful. Not that she would ever find that out, of course.

He would think that she had gone back to sleep if he couldn't see how tense she was with pain. He of course doesn't know what cramps are like, but he has come to understand over the years that they can be miserable pain.

He doesn't know what has come over him when he reaches out and puts a hand on her lower back, against the bare skin showing from underneath her pajama top. Every natural male instinct he possesses is telling him to run before he gets his head bitten off, but he can't help but feel something for this poor woman…is it pity? Or no…is it tenderness?

She tenses more at the unexpected touch, and he knows she must be in pain because she does not immediately spring up and give him a good telling off for the inappropriate contact. Instead, she begins to relax as he gently begins to rub her back. The pain must have put her out of her wits, because she actually moves up on the sofa to put her head in his lap. He feels rather than sees her sigh, and he can tell that she is falling back asleep.

He is startled to realize that he would be contented to stay here all night.


End file.
